Wampum

I've been spending much of my time buried in Administration calendars, court documents, travel schedules and lobbyist disclosures, so clearly haven't been posting much. However, I've found something that I think needs to go up right away, as the more eyes researching it, and, hopefully, bloggers flogging it, the better.

It might be easiest if you follow the path I took. I started on the Senate Lobbyist Dislosure site, looking for any clients with "Klamath" in the names. I found a few, but the one which stood out was the "Klamath Water Users Association". When I opened their disclosure forms, I found they had hired Washington Strategies on December 19, 2002, and listed Jennifer Johnson Calvert, Troy Tidwell and William Jarrell as registered lobbyists, to ostensibly work on "federal appropriations, water and natural resources."

I wasn't familiar with Troy Tidwell , but a quick Google indicated he was, as late as 2001, the senior legislative aide for Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR, Klamath Basin.)

Jennifer Calvert and William (Bill) Jarrell were familiar characters, however, having been part of "Team Abramoff" when Jack was honing his uber-lobbyist skills at Preston Gates. Even before Jack jumped ship and took much of his team and client base to Greenberg Traurig, Calvert and Jarrell bolted in December, 2000, to form Washington Strategies. Ms. Calvert's husband, Chad Calvert, had been selected as a member of the Bush-Cheney "Transition Team", probably due in part to his Wyoming roots (as mentioned previously, the team responsible for staffing Interior was headed by former Interior Solicitor, Tom Sansonetti.) Clearly, Jennifer Calvert and Bill Jarrell, a mover and shaker in his own right, as the former deputy chief of staff for Tom Delay, felt that they could gain the access to governmental officials that their clients would demand, without being in Jack's massive shadow.

Seeing that Sue Ellen Wooldridge was recently outted as Dick Cheney's mole in the Interior Department on Klamath Basin water issues, I was curious as to the relationship between the Calverts and Wooldridge. After his position on the Transition Team, Chad Calvert was named deputy director of the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs in January 2001. According to a later press release, Calvert

[A]ssisted the Secretary of the Interior and the director of Congressional Affairs in liaison activities with congressional committees and members of Congress. He coordinated departmental legislative policy with the assistant secretary for land and minerals management and the assistant secretary for Indian affairs, with their bureau directors and with the Office of Management and Budget.

Since CREW did not obtain Chad Calvert's calendar in their 2005/6 FIOA request, it's been difficult to ascertain just how involved he was on the Klamath Basin issue. However, I did notice that Sue Ellen Wooldridge had a social relationship with the Calverts: On Dec. 13th, 2002, her calendar indicated "Calvert Party". Remember, of course, that on Dec. 19th the Klamath Water Users Association hired Jennifer Calvert as their lobbyist. So did the Klamath County Economic Development Association, each forking over $40,000 per year for Washington Strategies lobbying efforts.

One thing that intrigued me on both Jennifer Calvert (now Jennifer Calvert Jarrell) and Bill Jarrell's biographies at the Washington Strategies website, was that both were founders and Board Members of Western Watch, "a national public policy organization dedicated to preserving and improving the quality of life for Western and rural Americans." Having spent so much time ferretting out the truth behind Italia Federici's Council for Republican Environmental Advocates and Abramoff's many charity front organizations, the idea of lobbyists "founding" non-profit organizations out of the kindness of their hearts leaves me less than convinced. And, in the case of the Western Watch Foundation, with good reason.

According to WWF's only filed Form 990 from Guidestar (2002), the organization raised $49,600, and spent $45,234 mostly on "conferences, conventions and meetings." They had no website, no offices separate from those of Washington Strategies, no mention of participation in any conference, convention and/or meeting; with the exception of the travel disclosure forms of three Republican members of Congress.

On June 28-30, 2002, Representatives Christopher Cannon (R-UT), Butch Otter (R-ID) and Wally Herger (R-CA) received paid travel, lodging and food to and in Las Vegas, Nevada, totaling $2,684, $2,603, and $2,518 respectively. The justifications ranged from "public lands conference" (Cannon), to "policy sessions on Education, Environment Western Issues" (Otter) to "Western Watch Foundation Policy Forum" (Herger.) On 9/23/2003, Herger again accepted paid travel, meals and lodging totalling $946 from the Western Watch Foundation, this time to Denver for a "Partnership for the West grassroots action summit" sponsored by WWF. Wally Herger's district (CA-2) is one of four which lie within the Klamath water basin, and he sits upon the Ways and Means Committee. Cannon and Otter (now governor of Idaho) were members of House Resources, which oversees water issues in the Klamath basin.

It's illegal for lobbyists to directly pay for travel expenses for Congresspersons and their staffs, so many have attempted to get around this law by forming 501(c)3 entities and using those as the funding sources. Jack Abramoff did this a number of times, in particular the now infamous Scotland Junkett. However, there are questions as to whether Abramoff's actions were in fact legal, and a number of Congressmen, including Tom Delay, are under investigation by the Public Intergrity Section of the DoJ. Since it is clear that Calvert and Jarrell formed the Western Watch Foundation solely to pay for the travel expenses of public servants, just what did they expect in return?